Branded

Name of

, nor, indeed, for a long time afterward, was the possibility that Withers or Geddis, or both of them, had forestalled me in the matter of bribing the two deputies; that my foolish attempt

rial within the week, the argument for haste being the critical state of affairs in the business of the Farmers' Bank of Glendale; a state of affairs which demanded that the responsibility for certain shortages in the bank's

ase postponed until the next term of court, or el

, when the delay would merely mean six

on a little time to die down," he suggested. "I say it isn't fair to try you while everybody's hot and exc

o get me out of the way as swiftly as possible. I knew this afterward, after I had time to think

ith good old Judge Haskins peering down at me over the top of his spectacles. Like many of the older people in the county, the ju

ors fought for the right of trial by jury, and got it, they passed down to us a sword with two edges. Their idea, which was embodied in the common law, was that a man should be tried by a jury of his peers. But the way things have worked out, the man

laced by worthless mining stock. Specifically, the charge was that I had been borrowing the bank's money and investing it in the mining stock-all without

rd me admit that I was guilty. There were no details given which could involve Agatha Geddis. It was merely stated that

whispered to me while this

talk with Miss Geddis. We are all willing to spare her the humiliation of being br

besotted enough, to shake my head. "I don't wish it," I said; and since this was pr

ne had been done without criminal intent. In this part of the trial I had a heart-warming surprise. The afternoon train from Glendale brought a big bunch of young people, and a good sprinkling of older ones, all eager to testify to my former good character. I saw then how unfai

urpose of ascertaining what sort of a young man I had been in the past. It was supposed to be an attempt to get at the

aten, was shown to the jurors, and the prosecuting attorney made much of the fact that I had not stopped at a possible murder in shutting Simmons up in the bank vault. Ther

id appeals to the sympathies of his juries. Here, he pleaded, with the tremolo stop pulled all the way out, was a young man whose entire future would be blasted-and all that sort

d Withers's testimony. Also, he cautioned the twelve not to make too much of the attempted escape. He said-what most judges wouldn't have said-that the attempt was entirely extraneous to the charge upon which I had been arraigned; that it was not to be taken as a presumption of guilt; that

d out of the court-room, I am sure, for they were back again in almost no time. Though I had every r

nounced my sentence. Five years was the minimum for the offense with which I stood charged. But a law recently passed gave the judges